Free Muni for Low-Income Youth Gets Reprieve

When the Municipal Transportation Commission (MTC) narrowly defeated a proposal to fund a pilot project giving free Muni service to 40,000 low-income youth in July, the project’s future looked dim.

But the project was resurrected Wednesday when the MTC board unanimously voted to use $15 million in federal funds to increase the efficiency and ridership on local transit. The SFMTA, which oversees Muni, will receive $6.7 million of the funds, which it can use for the free Muni project.

The SFMTA approved the $9 million free Muni project in April of this year on the condition that it would receive $4 million from the MTC.